The large volume storage space is dominated by the same three names that were
there last year. In fact, even their relative positions are also the same as
last year. The winner this year is HP once again, followed by IBM at a close 80
and Dell at a distant 32. Other brands that managed to make it to the club this
year include EMC/Legato, Hitachi, Sun, and surprisingly Apple. These remaining
players were far behind on the UPI as compared to the top three brands. Going by
industry, HP dominated manufacturing, BFSI, IT/ITeS and education segments while
IBM had the highest perception in healthcare, services and discrete
manufacturing segments. Dell's relative perception was the highest in
communication media followed by IT/ITeS. Zone wise, HP had strong brand
perception everywhere.
The key reason why existing owners of HP and IBM were willing to stay with
the same brands in the future also was reliability of products. The same reason
was quoted by users who were likely to buy these two brands in the near future
also.
HP enjoyed 44% brand loyalty while IBM was at 41%. Dell on the other hand was
at 32%. Dell also needs to worry about its existing users likely to shift to
other brands. 11% of existing Dell users said they were likely to purchase IBM
and another 5% chose HP. The biggest gainer from other brands in the likelihood
of shifting was IBM.